Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	doctrine_n	worship_n	3,910	5	7.2192	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94735	Fermentvm Pharisæorvm, or, The leaven of pharisaicall wil-worship: declared in a sermon on Matth. 15.9 Novemb. 24. 1641. at Lemster in Herefordshire. / By Iohn Tombes, B.D.	Tombes, John, 1603?-1676.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1643 (1643)	Wing T1808; Thomason E56_16; ESTC R20645	17,333	24

traditions True Religion humbles men but empty Ceremonies like winde in a bladder puffe up the soule Finally this will-wil-worship and teaching for doctrines mens precepts is opposite to true charity in that it begets hatred against true and zealous worshippers of God and this hatred shewes it selfe not onely in evill thoughts and beleeving all false reports and hard censures of them but also in bitter invectives against them for not affecting and liking their superstitious and virulent persecution of those that conforme not to their practice though it be onely because of tendernesse of conscience Hence it was that the Pharisees could better comply with such wicked men as Caiaphas Pilate Herod then with Christ his Disciples and John Baptist the Papists with Jewes Turkes Sodomits then with the godly Divines of the reformed Churches the formal Prelatists among Prote●tants with the most prophane Libertines or Idolatrous Papists then with a zealous preacher of the Gospell yea the most strict Pharisees have beene still the most incessant persecutors of Christ the most devout Friers the most eager and bloody inquisitors the most zealous for Church Canons and Rites the most heavy and unrelenting deprivers censurers and vexers of reverend Ministers and unspotted Christians whom they have confessed to agree with them in the same faith and to dissent onely from them in discipline and Ceremonies Secondly It causeth contentions Schismes and divisions in the Church witnesse the great contentions betweene the Easterne and Westerne Saxon and Brittish Churches about Easter Monkes and Friers about the rules of their orders conformists non-conformists about Ceremonies which the defenders acknowledge but trifles yet promote with as much bitter zeale as if Salus eccles ae verteretur in istis the safety of the Church faith and Religion depended on them Thirdly By it Christian liberty is impaired which being a precious thing to a Christian soule cannot be taken away without injury All will-wil-worship at first conception hath pretence of order and decency perhaps the things in which it is placed are taken but as indifferent which yet in processe of time gaine opinion of holinesse and necessity to that end and so bring the conscience into bondage Fourthly To conclude this evill tends to the detriment of mens goods the pillaging of their purses for no benefit to the owners much hinderance to the poore labouring Ministers and Common-wealth on which it should be bestowed Many a pound is given in Legacies and Contributions is extorted by Courts for maintaining vestments organs processions windowes buildings and other things unnecessary when the poore want painefull Preachers live on a small stipend the Common-wealth is brought to straights For superstition is costly and supers●●tious persons are either lavishly profuse or slavisbly ready to bestow their goods for very vanities which doe them no good when by a right bestowing of their goods they might make them friends of the unrighteous Mammon and be re●eived into everlasting habitations For application of this truth That which hath beene said may helpe us to take the right dimensions of this sinne as in all other things pertaining to God mans reason judgeth very corruptly so in particular about censuring of sinnes sinnes which injure men and harme them in their bodies goods or name are accounted hainous and the acting of them stirres up mens Spirits to rage and fury against the Authors But sinnes against Gods excellency and glory though they be indeed Camells yet are swallowed downe as gnats They that cry out against theft and murther and slander are very favourable in censuring Idolatry blasphemy and prophanenesse Hence it is that superstition is conceived harmelesse and superstitious persons though most injurious to God yet counted harmelesse by men it is hard to convince men that this is a sinne or to bring them to any serious repentance for it But would men seriously lay to heart that which hath beene said and judge righteous judgement it would be found that wil-worship is a sinne of a deepe dye estranging the heart farre from God and stirring up his soule against men wherefore it concernes especially two sorts of persons to lay this to heart First the Papists both Clergy and people who are horribly guilty of this point of Pharisaisme in teaching observing innumerable doctrines usages of rites customes ceremonies after the Commandement of men without Gods word It were an infinite businesse to reckon up all their humane religious devices in their fastings Sacraments burialls festivalls Churches religious orders and the like They pretend that the Churches orders are Gods orders and for that purpose alledge Luk. 10. 16. Hee that heareth you heareth mee and bee that despiseth you despiseth mee But this is absurdly alledged For this extends not to every thing that the seventy disciples to whom those words were spoken should devise of themselves but onely to what they should teach according to that injunction Matth. 28. 20. given to the Apostles that they should teach all nations to observe al things whatsoever he commanded them And in this limitation he that heareth the least minister of the Gospell heareth Christ as well as he that heareth the Pope or a Synod of Prelates whom they ridiculously call the Church They tell us that their traditions are not contra legem against the law but praeter legem besides the law To which we reply The same might have been said for the Pharisees washings for which neverthelesse our Saviour chargeth them with hypocris●e And indeed though the things themselves were not plainely contra legem against Gods Law yet the practice of teaching n●…ng such things for or instead of Gods feare is directly against Gods Law which forbids us to adde or diminish from Gods commandements Secondly The late Prelaticall prevailing party of this Kingdome may be charged as guilty of the same sinne of which our Saviour indited these Pharisees in whose steps they tread I say the late Prelaticall party that I may not be thought to lay this imputation on the first reformers and their reverend successors who were constant and zealous Preachers of the Gospell of Christ and many of them confirmed it by their sufferings I say the late prevailing Prelaticall party because I conceive that some of the Prelates of this Land have beenemore considerate then to urge and teach Commandements of men in that manner that the prevailing party hath done I mean in their teaching and practise about Images Crucifixes Altars Rayles Tapers bowing to or towards Altars praying towards the East bowing at the naming of the word Jesus consecrating Churches Confirmation Copes Organes Surplisses Crossing at the solemnity of Baptisme and the like All which have beene urged and used of late with a Pharisaicall and Popish Spirit as if by the using them men were made more holy God served and the not conforming to them a crime of want of devotion and reverence to God And yet the same party shew themselves adversaries to the constant and

doctrine of the Apostle Col. 2. 20. when Ceremonies are obtruded as necessary we are not to submit to them If ye be dead with Christ saith the Apostle from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Peccant igitur saith Bishop Davenant on those words non modo qui nova decreta fabricantur in religione sed qui iisdem se subj●ciunt libertatem Christi sanguine partam patiuntur sibi eripi Quid ritibus oneramini inquit Apostolus quasi diceret vestrum est hoc jugum recusare in li●erate quâ Christus vos liberavit perstare ut Paulus m●net Gal. 5. 1. That is they therefore sinne not onely who make new decrees in Religion but who subject themselves to the same and suffer the liberty gotten by the blood of Christ to be taken from them Why are yee burdened with rites saith the Apostle as if he should say It belongs to you to refuse this yoke and to persist in the liberty in which Christ hath freed you as Paul admonisheth Gal. 5. 1. Secondly Because it is apparent by many proofes and declared in the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome that they have beene urged and used for the reduction of Superstition and Popery and for the hindering of true godlinesse Papists themselves boasted of it that we were comming neare to them and they gathered it from the outward face of this Church as was of late in the urging and use of Ceremonies Besides they began to corrupt the doctrine of Religion specially that point of the free grace of God as the booke called the Cumerb●rtant selfe Conviction proves from their writings And it is the rule of Master Francis Mason in his booke of the authority of the Church on 1 Cor. 14. 40. that when the Doctrine declineth the Ceremony is perverted Now the Apostles practice is a sure rule who having circumcised Timothy would not yeeld to have Titus circumcised when he saw that by yeelding the preservation of Christian liberty and of the truth of the Gospell was endangered Gal. 2. 3 4 5. Thirdly Because they are found to foment Ignorance and superstition in the people And this by innumerable experiments is manifest that by reason of the constant continuance of them Religion is placed in them yea the omitting of a Ceremony is conceived an alteration of Religion they are zealous for them as if all their Religion were placed in them Nor is this onely in places where there hath beene no Preacher to shew their errour but also where they have been often and fully taught the contrary And indeed where humane Ceremonies are p●ecisely used the word of God is little minded Now in this case though the things be indifferent in themselves yet are they not to be used to the scandall of mens soules It is the speech of the second part of the Sermon of fasting in the second Tome of Homilies that Gods Church ought not neither may it be so tyed to that or any other order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the authority of man but that it may lawfully and for just causes alter change or mitigate those ecclesiasticall decrees and orders yea recede wholly from them and breake them when they tend either to superstition or to impiety when they draw the people from God rather then worke any edisication in them Fourthly Because they have found them to increase more and more and the yeelding to some gives encouragement to adde more Now it is a rule agreed that Ceremonies if many are an intolerable burthen It makes the case of the Church Christian worse then that of the Jewes if as Saint Augustine observes Epist. 119. ad Januarium the Christian Church being freed from legall ordinances of God be burthened with humane presumptions Now as he that will beare a little burthen will throw off all if more bee added to over burthen him so may that man that would beare a few Ceremonies justly throw off all when the burthen is increased without measure especially sith multitude of Ceremonies shadow the Gospell making the Religion rather carnall like the Jewish then spirituall like the Christian hindering the fruit thereof from ripening as too many leaves doe a few grapes that are covered by them Thirdly from hence we may take occasion to admonish ministers that they avoid the way of these Pharisees who taught for doctrines mens precepts Con●ider I beseech you whereto you are called to be Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. not observers of Ceremonies and teachers of Church orders Give me leave to expostulate with you Are ye called to maintaine mens traditions or Gods word the Ceremonies of men or the Gospell of Christ How will you then give your account to Christ when you are so zealous for mens traditions so cold for his Gospell When ye exclaime against them that omit an humane Ceremony favour and commend them that teach not the way of salvation When yee foment the hatred of the people against those that disuse Ceremonies of men favour them that neglect the Commands of God when ye cherish the ignorance and superstition of the common people which ye should labour to weede out of their hearts Is it not enough for you to worship God in vaine but that ye teach men so to doe I beseech you consider that threatning before alledged Isa. 29. 14. that for this cause the wisedome of the wise men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid Remember the threatning Mal. 2. 9. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as yee have not kept my wayes but have beene partiall in the law Fourthly From hence we may take occasion to admonish the people to take heed of such Pharisaicall teachers as teach for Doctrines Commandements of men our Saviour Christ having manifested the hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees in this thing bids his Disciples let them alone telling them that they were blinde leaders of the blinde and if the blinde lead the blinde both fall into the ditch Matth. 15. 14. And elsewhere Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Luk. 12. 1. And surely people have neede to take heede of such teachers sith superstition as it is a pernitious evill so it easily insinuates into peoples mindes and sticks fast in them under shew of antiquity decency and gravity I know this will bee interpreted as if it were a hainous thing to perswade people to withdraw themselves from the Ministers of their Parish though never so negligent or corrupt But let Bishop Bilson answer for me Imo populus ipse deficiente Magistratu Christiano deserere falsos improbos pastores jure Divino potest coercere vero minime Declinare derelinquere eos possunt cogere aut punire non possunt Vis et vindicta gladio alligatae extra privatorum sortem ac caetum collocatae sunt Vnde Paulus Rom. 16. Observate eos qui dissidia scandala contra doctrinam quam edocti estis faciunt et declinate ab iis Oves meae inquit Dominus noster Johan 10. vocem meam audiunt sequuntur me Alienum autem nequaquam sequentur sed fugient ab eo Idem Cyprianus et reliqui Episcopi consulti rescripserunt Epist. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. Separemini inquit Dominus a tabernaculis hominum istorum durissimorum et nolite tangere ea quae ad eos pertinent ne simul pereatis in peccatis eorum Propter quod plebs obsequens praeceptis Domini et Deum metuens a peccatore praeposito separare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi Sacerdotis sacrificia miscere quando ipsa defectu fidelis magistratus maxim● habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel recusandi indignos FINIS Sect. 1. Sect. 2. Sect. 3. Sect. 4. Sect. 5. Sect. 6. Sect. 7. Sir Fran. Bacons essayes of superstition Sect. 8. Dr. Hall quo vadis or censure of travaile Sect. 20. Sect. 9. Sect. 10. Sect. 11. Sect. 12. Archbishop Laud Epist. Dedic. before the relat of his conference with Fisher Heylin coale from the Altar Bishop White Answer to Burton of the Sab. p. 20. Reeve in his expos. of the Cat Bishop Andrewes Sermon in locum Widdowes Lawles kneeles puritan Bishop Andrews Answer to the 18. ch of Cardinall Perrouns reply Heylin Antid Lincoln Sect. 13. Sect. 14. Sect. 15. Libro de perp eul gubernat c. 10.

in processe of time though at first invented for a good use turned to the great detriment of religion and corrupting of the Gospell I thinke an instance cannot be given of a device of man pretending to advance piety and to edifie the Church when God hath provided other meanes to that end which hath not in the conclusion hindered piety and more or lesse destroyed the purity of Religion So sottish and blinde is the wisedome of man in appointing and directing the service of God Secondly in vaine is Gods feare taught by mens precepts because God is not pleased with Carnall observances and bodily exercises Bodily exercise saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 8. profiteth little but godlinesse is profitable to all things where the Apostle opposeth godlinesse to bodily exercise and thereby sheweth that bodily exercise is not godlinesse and therefore profits but a little to wit among men getting esteeme with them but nothing with God whose promises onely are made to true Godlinesse which is a spirituall exercise For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth saith our Saviour John 4. 23 24. Now mens precepts are altogether about bodily things as washings gestures garments fastings feastings processions buildings and such like All which reach no further then the body cannot rectifie or amend the Soule and make it more like to God Thirdly this teaching for doctrines mens precepts displeaseth God as being injurious to him and that in a double respect first teaching and urging mens commands in stead of doctrines whereby Gods worship should be taught intrencheth on Gods Prerogative who is the onely Lawgiver to his Church Jam. 4. 12. for his worship For as it is a prerogative of a King to appoint the wayes of his owne service and honour and he should be taken to be very presumptuous and arrogant that should take upon him to prescribe a fashion of attendance suite and service to his Prince without his consent when he hath otherwise declared his will so is it much more intolerable pride and presumption in a mortall man to appoint a way of service to God which he never consented to but hath otherwise directed his owne service And for the same reason it is a transferring of Gods prerogative on a man when he doth servilly consent by subjecting his conscience to such usurpation Secondly God is injured by the thoughts that such superstitious persons have of God when they conceive God to be such a one as will be pleased with humane Ceremonies to be so childish or simple as to be affected with pompes and shewes and gestures and carnall rites which he never appointed I remember the saying of a man of great wit to this effect That superstition alike injures God as Atheisme For as Plutarch sayes I had as liefe men should say there is no such man as Plutarch as to say Plutarch is a foole so saith the Author it is as injurious to God to say he is so childish as to be taken with superstition as to deny his being Fourthly this teaching for doctrines mens precepts produceth many other evill effects First it opposeth Gods word his Law his Gospell sundry wayes First Because it brings in another rule of worship then Gods Law to wit tradition of Elders custome example or opinion of seeming grave wise and pious men of affected teachers For these are the rules by which superstitious persons are guided not by Gods word Now it is a high crime against God to follow any other rule of our worship and obedience to him sith he hath injoyned Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not adde unto the word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it that ye may keepe the commandements of the Lord your God which I command you Prov. 30. 6. Adde not thou unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou bee found a lier Secondly Because it opposeth the manifestation of the cleare light of the Gospell As shadowes darken the light of the Sunne that shines in the aire so carnall rites invented by men obscure the spirituall beauty and splendour of the Gospell so that by reason of such rites the Gospell is either not considered or understood carnally Thus the Ceremonies of Moses law were as a vaile before the eyes of the Jewes that they could not looke to the end of that which is abolished 2 Cor. 3. 13. And the popish ceremonies darkned the true light of the Gospell And let any man looke into those places in which there is so much preaching of ceremonies and Church orders and such a regular observation of them as in places where the Cathedrall and Canonicall Preachers and officiating Priests doe beare sway he shall finde little spirituall understanding and lively feeling of the doctrine and grace of Christ the highest pitch that they bring men to and there are but few that are brought by them so farre is some morall civility some outward regularity in the outward formes of devotion which yet is accompanyed as it was in the Pharisees with bitter and virulent enmity against holy and ardent zeale for Christ and shewes it selfe to be but Pharisaicall hypocrisie when it is brought to triall It is usually alledged that such Ceremonies are appointed for edification and that the text 1 Cor. 14. 26. Let all things be done unto edifying allowes men specially Prelates in a Synod to ordaine what they conceive may be for edifying But the occasion of these words plainly shewes that the Apostle meanes not every arbitrary devise which is conceited by men though the wisest most grave and pious to bee for edifying must be done for then the text would impose a necessity of subjection to such humane devices But the text is plainly meant of such things as are necessary to edification as speaking in a knowne tongue and without confusion And although I know Ceremonies invented by men are pretented to serve for edification yet I must professe that I never found in my reading or experience that ever any person by such rites or observances was wonne to the profession of Christ or brought to any spirituall knowledge of Christ any true faith or sincere obedience to him Possibly they may beget some kinde of raptures of carnall delight through melodious soundes or pleasant sights some kinde of womanish pity and teares such as the acting of a stage play will draw from some persons but that ever they begat sanctifying knowledge sound repentance holy mortification of sinne lively faith fruitfull living to God I assure my selfe cannot be shewed But it is certaine on the contrary that the teaching for doctrines commandements of men hath occasioned men to oppose the principall point of the Gospell of Chri●t to wit justification by faith in him and contrary to the covenant of grace in Christ to conceive a righteousnesse in themselves by the observation of mens commands as in the Pharisees and Papists and al sorts of superstitious